Rizia's message had spread throughout the chaotic City, sending every scattered member of Riot to curiously turn their heads. Regardless of whatever else they were doing, whether it be fighting or attempting to save citizens, they all fled toward that desired location: the Requiem Tower.
Ace carried Kima in his arms while sprinting down the flaming roads of the Evolutionary Capital. Looking around at all the demons feasting on mutilated bodies as they sped by, Wilder inhaled shakily. Kim, nestled into her lover's limbs carefully, couldn't help but look up at him. She knew that unfortunate look in his eyes would soon consume him entirely. If this disaster persisted any further, Ace's guilt would be the last thing tormenting him.
"Just keep moving, alright?" She reminded him.
He was quiet. She was still staring up at him. He'd eventually have to answer with something, no matter how far-fetched or half-assed.
"Yeah…" Ace inevitably grumbled back at her.
She would feel the increase in his speed. The electrical bolts that scattered from his red lightning gathered, unleashing a repulsive shockwave that launched him down the road to vanish around the corner.
Unknowingly, June ran alongside her older brother from the rooftops to his right. As she watched his speed increase, she scoffed. Unraveling an emerald thread from her fingertips, she attached the rope to a nearby balcony after leaping from the rooftop. Despite this horrifying scenery, soaring through the air with extended arms, June couldn't withhold her childlike glee. She uncontrollably giggled, freefalling through the sky and descending toward the ground before unleashing another of her emerald ropes.
"WOOHOO!" She cheered.
Throwing herself after another swing, she caught a momentary glimpse of the ground below. Jumping from car to car, her Blade held tightly in hand, Katie was slicing apart demons pouncing toward her. Unable to look away from her cousin's killer expertise, Wilder landed beside her cousin against the vehicle. Having just slashed a pouncing monster away, Katie turned away, ready to enact another attack by beheading whoever crouched beside her.
June caught the Blade before the sharpened length could behead her, smiling at her swordswoman relative.
"How you doing?" She cheekily asked.
"June! Where'd you come from?" Kate asked, withdrawing her katana from her relative's hold.
"I was just around the area and saw you fighting on the ground. We don't have time to chat, though."
June and Katie simultaneously looked up. Their blue and green eyes reflected the sky, filled with blimps leaking Retlyian soldiers into their airspace. Moon readied her katana, seconds away from aiming it forward.
"Let's deal with them later." June grabbed her arm, pulling her back. "C'mon. We have to start moving," she reminded.
Despite how much the deathly spirit within her hungered for more blood, Katie relied on her instincts. She turned to June and nodded her head. Within seconds after they decided to move without fighting, two blurs dashed through multiple streets, decimating the ground below their soles as they made their way toward that destination.
Many more members of Riot continued forward, paving the way through the endless horde of bloodthirsty demons, crushing their skulls with their fists or slicing apart their bodies with claws. Inevitably, everyone managed to meet together in front of the Tower, literally on the steps leading into the wide-open lobby.
"Jeff!" June cried.
She ran toward her mentor, shoving her face into his chest upon embracing him. He snickered at the young girl's excited call, patting her head while hugging her.
"I'm glad you're alright, kiddo," he whispered amid their reunion.
"Aren't we missing someone?" Kima asked, surveying her surrounding comrades.
"Alex…" Ace mumbled; remembering his teacher.
The second the Judge was mentioned, the whistling sound of an incoming missile infiltrated their ears. June instinctively pulled away from Jeff, the two enacting identical actions simultaneously with clasped palms that slammed against the ground almost immediately. Seconds before a transparent emerald sphere erecting, Ace grabbed his sister's shoulder.
"Wait," he warned her.
"Huh-?"
June looked over her shoulder; noticing the look in his teary eyes. Then, she looked to her older ally. That was enough. The shield she planned to rise utilizing Convergence's defensive capabilities never came to fruition. Instead, her hands lowered and she just stared ahead, silently trusting her brother's intuition. Hana's closed eyes slowly opened, revealing her retinas' pink coloration. She stepped closer from the corner she was nestled into, thereby announcing her presence.
"There he is," she said.
Their heads turned toward the sound of imminent footsteps originating from the bottom of the stairway. Marching up the steps, drenched in blood with his hair loosened, there he stood. Holding his demonic victims' decapitated skull, his lips vented one heavy breath. Alex's white eyes shot toward his allies, opening his mouth to finally speak.
"Long time no see…" the exasperated Judge greeted.
"Are you okay?! What happened?" Ace worriedly asked, running toward his mentor.
"I killed Naraku. Here's the other one's head."
Alex threw one of the skulls he was carrying onto the floor. The head rolled against the concrete however slowly until it reached the fronts of Ace's feet. Wilder instantly recognized its intact features, for that face was none other than the incapacitated Jester: Icarus Chrollo.
"He's not dead yet, though," Katie added.
"How?" June interjected; questioning her cousin.
"Because his innate technique is unreasonably powerful. No matter how much I shave away of his body, he'll always revive at the end of the day," Alex stated, wiping away the blood on his face.
"And you brought him back here?" Azazel objected, barging through the crowd to step closer.
"I defeated him, didn't I?" Al retorted back at him.
"He's not here for us, though." Hana interrupted, her arms interlocked and hidden within her baggy sleeves, "Until the Jester gets what he wants, he'll just keep destroying everything."
Amidst childishly bickering about their current situation, Natalia rolled her eyes, looking at Icarus's head. It was abnormal. Despite having been torn from the shoulders of the Jester, no blood dirtied the concrete below the cranium. She deemed this discovery meaningless, simply averting her eyes and focusing her attention on the others' discussion. A chill crept up her spine, the air suddenly stagnated. Everything she thought she knew about the present she questioned a second time; pondering the legitimacy of their enemy's beheading.
Her brunette irises targeted the ground. In front of where Ace stood, debating with his numerous fellows, there was Chrollo's unchanging face. At first, she believe her eyes to be deceiving her, but upon further inspection, what she wished to be a falsehood ended up being the unmistakable truth. He'd… blinked. In the little time she had, she shouted as loud as she could.
"ACE, GET AWAY FROM—!!"
But she was too late. Icarus had regenerated from his head down instantaneously, giving his exorbitant enemies no time to react. The second his newly-formed feet touched the ground, the Jester struck Ace in the throat, sending him to uncontrollably cough.
While holding his neck, Wilder was kicked in the chest, sent flying into the Tower, and crashed through the glass door entrance. Alex's Judge whip unraveled instantly, throwing the metallic length forward. Icarus blocked the attack with his outreached palm, manically giggling as his steaming hand grew demonic claws that scraped Alex's invincible Unlimited barrier. He followed up with a strengthened kick, foot slamming against Amara's chest; somehow sending him rolling down the steps.
Katie unsheathed her Blade and slashed at Icarus's neck, holding onto the hope she'd flawlessly behead her enemy. Chrollo easily caught the sharpness between his sharpened nails, painting his adversary's face with a shocked expression. Now using one hand to hold the katana, he was free to use the other, relentlessly connecting his knuckles with the forefront of Kate's face.
His fist sunk into her skin, thereby launching her right through the Tower's front and out the back. A diagonal scar formed over her nose, dripping blood as she unconsciously lay against the concrete floor behind their former headquarters. Everyone was in shock—unable to move any further as their eyes were glued to the hole Kate's body made upon being impacted by Icarus's fist. When everyone turned back, Chrollo was waving his bloodied fist, expressing arrogant snickers from his lips.
"And here I thought Death's Source would be formidable. Turns out she was all bark and no BITE!"
The Jester jolted forward instantaneously, reappearing from a transparent afterimage before June's eyes. At that moment, she felt the entirety of her life flash before Convergence's sight, as what she faced was undeniably her demise. Luckily, Hana was speedily able to intervene, punching him away at almost the invisible same speed he'd pounced at. Icarus flew down the stairs, flailing backward before his throat was pulled by the Judge's whip into Alex's angry fist.
Chrollo smashed into the ground before him, forming a hole in the stairway's build. Hana levitated down to her student, her pink eye color now revealed.
"Is he alive?" The Master asked curiously.
"Yeah. And he's not backing down," Alex said.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Hana queried.
"Sorry, it's just…" Amara's white eyes somberly lowered, remembering those distant memories he touched in the future, "There were more important things to attend to," he said.
Hana recognized that look in Alex's eyes. No matter how much he despised himself, the Allfather's iconic lifelessness was inherited by his Requiem descendant. A putrid cycle none of them could halt—no matter how hard they tried.
The Jester exited the hole in the stairway, loudly cackling crazily with extended arms and tendrils poking outward from cracks in his skin. His obvious wounds instantly healed, skin reattaching itself easily, bubbling flesh regenerating whatever lost limbs he had. Icarus unleashed one final giggle, clenching his fist so the veins would spread over the backs of his knuckles.
"Is that all you got… pathetic Requiem ABOMINATION?!" Icarus yelled.
That was all Alex needed. He darted forward, throwing his fist ahead, watching his arm coursed through white crackling Requiem energy. Eventually, his knuckles connected with the opponent, but not with his face. Chrollo had caught the attack with his widened palm, moving away from his limb from covering his sinister smirk and snickering. Instead of pushing him away, their heads collided, sending them both away from one another.
Alex inadvertently retreated after the head-butt, standing beside Hana once again; observing their encounter. Blood pouring down his face, Icarus flashed another arrogant smirk, simultaneously licking his teeth.
"Do you know what I hate about humans?" He asked.
Hana's eyes widened. She'd never heard those words before but despite that, it sent still a shiver down his spine. Her hands formed the Uttarabodhi Mudra, and she invoked these words before he even got a chance to finish his statement.
"Territory Envelopment."
The Judge's shining white eyes shot at his teacher. Once diverting, he scanned over his changing environment, watching as his destroyed whereabouts were replaced with cherry blossoms and endless flowers that swept away the terror from the well-known cruel world. Icarus chuckled, one sweat drop falling down his face.
"Beloved Flowers," she said in Japanese.
Chrollo and Alex were equally motionless despite their rivalry. To invoke the soul's vicinity in such an awkward place was odd… regardless, Amara believed in his Master. If there was anyone capable of finally destroying the Jester, it would be the one who stood atop the New World's specialized realm of supremacy: Hana Saiai.
Their hair colors were sent flowing in the breeze, but that was just it—the Jester smiled once again and looked up to the ceiling of the Master's Territory.
'There's… no barrier?' Alex observed.
Usually, Territories are extensions of the soul. They can't be used in the real world, so a domain is formed around the selected air imbued with the soul's energy that makes up someone's Territory. While it's possible to not use a barrier, Hana Saiai was the only one to actively realize this process; thus allowing the truth of her Territory to be fully manifested in the real world. The power to release the inner machinations of one's soul is akin to realizing the height of your untapped potential: an all-out maximum technique that can't be avoided once ensnared. A divine technique only usable by the Requiem Master.
"You're in my domain now, Icarus. This is where we'll finally END YOU!"
Hana's declaration led Icarus into another laughing fit. He flicked his hair back, glaring at his two enemies with lifeless blackened eyes and licking his lips. His legs split apart, one arm aiming forward. Having now affixed himself into a battle-ready stance, the Jester was more ready than ever.
The last chance for any of them to curse each other starts NOW!
Trivia: Alex was taken from the Old World the moment the Destructive Advent ended and had the same body as he did before. Hana is the same but she was Incarnated after he was, most likely 15 years ago when Founder Rivers first changed the world and fled for Riverton Island. Also the Uttarabodhi Mudra can be made when two hands are placed together above the head with the index fingers together and the others intertwined.